Ryszard Horowitz
Encyclopedia
Ryszard Horowitz was born in Kraków
, Poland
. At the age of only four months, he and his family were transported into a series of concentration camps following the Nazi invasion of Poland. After years of imprisonment, he and his parents survived the horrors of the work camps. Ryszard, among the youngest known survivors of Auschwitz, was only five years old when the Russian Army
liberated him.
Horowitz and his family were one of the few Jewish families to be able to return to Kraków. As a child, Ryszard grew up with Roma Ligocka
and Roman Polanski
. It was his time spent living with Polanski, that stoked Horowitz's interest in the arts. He later studied painting
at the Academy of Fine Arts
, where he became interested in photography
, particularly the work of American photographers.
In 1956, Poland experienced a brief political and cultural thaw. The government encouraged new art forms, granting subsidies to people practicing their crafts in their country. Kraków became a booming center for artistic exploration as theater, filmmaking
and painting were everywhere. Avant-garde
jazz
was of particular interest to Horowitz. Photographing jazz legends such as Dave Brubeck
, Louis Armstrong
, Count Basie
, Paul Desmond
, Duke Ellington
, Aretha Franklin
, Coleman Hawkins
, Carmen McRae
, Charles Mingus
, Thelonious Monk
, Jerry Mulligan, Sonny Rollins
, Jimmy Rushing
, and more Horowitz witnessed the revival first-hand.
Ryszard immigrated to the United States
in 1959. He enrolled at the Pratt Institute
in New York City
, where he later received a scholarship to apprentice under Alexey Brodovitch
. Honing his craft in the industry of editorial design and photography, Ryszard saw the appeal of commercialism in art. This reinforced his passion for photography to be his career, as well as his hobby.
After graduating from Pratt in 1962, Horowitz took several jobs with film and design companies, including a stint as art director
for Grey Advertising
. But in 1967 he decided to open his own photography studio. Horowitz's photos have been exhibited, published and collected, and he has received multiple awards for his work. Horowitz has been recognized as a pioneer of special effects photography prior to digital technology, and has updated his techniques as technologies have changed.
Kraków
Kraków also Krakow, or Cracow , is the second largest and one of the oldest cities in Poland. Situated on the Vistula River in the Lesser Poland region, the city dates back to the 7th century. Kraków has traditionally been one of the leading centres of Polish academic, cultural, and artistic life...
, Poland
Poland
Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
. At the age of only four months, he and his family were transported into a series of concentration camps following the Nazi invasion of Poland. After years of imprisonment, he and his parents survived the horrors of the work camps. Ryszard, among the youngest known survivors of Auschwitz, was only five years old when the Russian Army
Red Army
The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army started out as the Soviet Union's revolutionary communist combat groups during the Russian Civil War of 1918-1922. It grew into the national army of the Soviet Union. By the 1930s the Red Army was among the largest armies in history.The "Red Army" name refers to...
liberated him.
Horowitz and his family were one of the few Jewish families to be able to return to Kraków. As a child, Ryszard grew up with Roma Ligocka
Roma Ligocka
Roma Ligocka is a Polish costume designer, writer, and painter.She was born in a Jewish family in Kraków a few years before World War II. During the German occupation of Poland her family was persecuted by the Nazis - her father was incarcerated, first in the Płaszów and then Auschwitz...
and Roman Polanski
Roman Polanski
Roman Polanski is a French-Polish film director, producer, writer and actor. Having made films in Poland, Britain, France and the USA, he is considered one of the few "truly international filmmakers."...
. It was his time spent living with Polanski, that stoked Horowitz's interest in the arts. He later studied painting
Painting
Painting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a surface . The application of the medium is commonly applied to the base with a brush but other objects can be used. In art, the term painting describes both the act and the result of the action. However, painting is...
at the Academy of Fine Arts
Jan Matejko Academy of Fine Arts
The Jan Matejko Academy of Fine Arts, or Kraków Academy of Fine Arts , located in Kraków, Poland, is the oldest Polish fine-arts academy, established in 1818.It is a state-run university that offers 5- and 6-year Master's degree programs...
, where he became interested in photography
Photography
Photography is the art, science and practice of creating durable images by recording light or other electromagnetic radiation, either electronically by means of an image sensor or chemically by means of a light-sensitive material such as photographic film...
, particularly the work of American photographers.
In 1956, Poland experienced a brief political and cultural thaw. The government encouraged new art forms, granting subsidies to people practicing their crafts in their country. Kraków became a booming center for artistic exploration as theater, filmmaking
Filmmaking
Filmmaking is the process of making a film, from an initial story, idea, or commission, through scriptwriting, casting, shooting, directing, editing, and screening the finished product before an audience that may result in a theatrical release or television program...
and painting were everywhere. Avant-garde
Avant-garde
Avant-garde means "advance guard" or "vanguard". The adjective form is used in English to refer to people or works that are experimental or innovative, particularly with respect to art, culture, and politics....
jazz
Jazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...
was of particular interest to Horowitz. Photographing jazz legends such as Dave Brubeck
Dave Brubeck
David Warren "Dave" Brubeck is an American jazz pianist. He has written a number of jazz standards, including "In Your Own Sweet Way" and "The Duke". Brubeck's style ranges from refined to bombastic, reflecting his mother's attempts at classical training and his improvisational skills...
, Louis Armstrong
Louis Armstrong
Louis Armstrong , nicknamed Satchmo or Pops, was an American jazz trumpeter and singer from New Orleans, Louisiana....
, Count Basie
Count Basie
William "Count" Basie was an American jazz pianist, organist, bandleader, and composer. Basie led his jazz orchestra almost continuously for nearly 50 years...
, Paul Desmond
Paul Desmond
Paul Desmond , born Paul Emil Breitenfeld, was a jazz alto saxophonist and composer born in San Francisco, best known for the work he did in the Dave Brubeck Quartet and for penning that group's greatest hit, "Take Five"...
, Duke Ellington
Duke Ellington
Edward Kennedy "Duke" Ellington was an American composer, pianist, and big band leader. Ellington wrote over 1,000 compositions...
, Aretha Franklin
Aretha Franklin
Aretha Louise Franklin is an American singer, songwriter, and pianist. Although known for her soul recordings and referred to as The Queen of Soul, Franklin is also adept at jazz, blues, R&B, gospel music, and rock. Rolling Stone magazine ranked her atop its list of The Greatest Singers of All...
, Coleman Hawkins
Coleman Hawkins
Coleman Randolph Hawkins was an American jazz tenor saxophonist. Hawkins was one of the first prominent jazz musicians on his instrument. As Joachim E. Berendt explained, "there were some tenor players before him, but the instrument was not an acknowledged jazz horn"...
, Carmen McRae
Carmen McRae
Carmen Mercedes McRae was an American jazz singer, composer, pianist, and actress. Considered one of the most influential jazz vocalists of the 20th century, it was her behind-the-beat phrasing and her ironic interpretations of song lyrics that made her memorable...
, Charles Mingus
Charles Mingus
Charles Mingus Jr. was an American jazz musician, composer, bandleader, and civil rights activist.Mingus's compositions retained the hot and soulful feel of hard bop and drew heavily from black gospel music while sometimes drawing on elements of Third stream, free jazz, and classical music...
, Thelonious Monk
Thelonious Monk
Thelonious Sphere Monk was an American jazz pianist and composer considered "one of the giants of American music". Monk had a unique improvisational style and made numerous contributions to the standard jazz repertoire, including "Epistrophy", "'Round Midnight", "Blue Monk", "Straight, No Chaser"...
, Jerry Mulligan, Sonny Rollins
Sonny Rollins
Theodore Walter "Sonny" Rollins is a Grammy-winning American jazz tenor saxophonist. Rollins is widely recognized as one of the most important and influential jazz musicians. A number of his compositions, including "St...
, Jimmy Rushing
Jimmy Rushing
James Andrew Rushing , known as Jimmy Rushing, was an American blues shouter and swing jazz singer from Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, United States, best known as the featured vocalist of Count Basie's Orchestra from 1935 to 1948.Rushing was known as "Mr...
, and more Horowitz witnessed the revival first-hand.
Ryszard immigrated to the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
in 1959. He enrolled at the Pratt Institute
Pratt Institute
Pratt Institute is a private art college in New York City located in Brooklyn, New York, with satellite campuses in Manhattan and Utica. Pratt is one of the leading undergraduate art schools in the United States and offers programs in Architecture, Graphic Design, History of Art and Design,...
in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
, where he later received a scholarship to apprentice under Alexey Brodovitch
Alexey Brodovitch
Alexey Brodovitch was a Russian-born photographer, designer and instructor who is most famous for his art direction of fashion magazine Harper's Bazaar from 1938 to 1958.- Early life in Russia :...
. Honing his craft in the industry of editorial design and photography, Ryszard saw the appeal of commercialism in art. This reinforced his passion for photography to be his career, as well as his hobby.
After graduating from Pratt in 1962, Horowitz took several jobs with film and design companies, including a stint as art director
Art director
The art director is a person who supervise the creative process of a design.The term 'art director' is a blanket title for a variety of similar job functions in advertising, publishing, film and television, the Internet, and video games....
for Grey Advertising
Grey Global Group
Grey Group is a global advertising and marketing agency, whose slogan is providing solutions - with headquarters in New York City, and 432 offices in 96 countries, operating in 154 cities — organized into four geographical units: North America; Europe, Middle East & Africa, Asia-Pacific and Latin...
. But in 1967 he decided to open his own photography studio. Horowitz's photos have been exhibited, published and collected, and he has received multiple awards for his work. Horowitz has been recognized as a pioneer of special effects photography prior to digital technology, and has updated his techniques as technologies have changed.
Awards and recognition
- 2010 - Doctor Honoris Causa Awarded by Warsaw Academy of Fine Arts
- 2008 - Gloria Artis Gold Medal of Merit to Culture Awarded by the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Poland
- 2002 - INTERNATIONAL GUTENBERG AWARDS (Montreal, Canada) Gold Medal
- 1996 - OFFICER CROSS OF MERIT awarded by president of the Republic of Poland
- 1991 - First Annual One APA Advertising Photography Award, Best in Special Effects Photography
- 1991 - Kodak's VIP Image Search, ACM SIGGRAPH, Best in Show. Best in Application/Digital Photography
- 1991 - First Annual One APA Advertising Photography Award - Best in Special Effects Photography
- 1983 - ADWEEK All-American Photographer of the Year
- 1983 - Andy Award of Merit]
- 1982 - "Gold Caddie", Best in Car Advertising, Detroit
- 1978 - Chicago '78, 5 Certificates of Excellence
- 1976 - Creativity '76, Certificate of Distinction
- 1975 - Creativity '75, Certificate of Distinction
- 1974 - The One Club, Merit Award
- 1973 - The One Club, Gold Award & Merit Award
- 1973 - Chicago 4, Certificate of Excellence
- 1973 - Philadelphia Art Directors Club, Annual Award of Excellence
- 1973 - CA-73 Award of Excellence
- 1972 - Art Directors Club of New York, Certificate of Merit
- 1971 - AIGA, Certificate of Excellence
- 1971 - Creativity '71, Certificate of Distinction
- 1970 - Art Directors Club of New York, Gold Medal
- 1967 - Art Directors Club of New York, Award of Distinctive Merit
- 1964 - Art Directors Club of New York, Award of Distinctive Merit
- 1961 - Art Directors Club of New York, Certificate of Merit